A round-up of public finance stories from the Asia Pacific region you might have missed this week (April 15-19).

China economic growth lower than forecast

China's economy, the world's second-largest, has slowed and performed worse than many analysts expected in the first three months of the year (BBC).

Economic strength hinders China's fiscal revenue growth

China's fiscal revenue growth continued to slow in the first quarter, mainly as a result of the country's tempered economic expansion, structural tax reforms and sluggish import growth, the Ministry of Finance said on Monday (China Daily).

Philippines government's two month spending up 12.4%

National government spending increased by 12.4% to P282bn in the first two months of the year, with disbursements for infrastructure projects doubling to P12bn, the Department of Budget and Management has reported (Business Mirror).

Australian government faces fresh budget revenue concerns

Treasurer Wayne Swan's budget preparations are going down to the wire after events in Europe undermined the revenue outlook yet again - this time over the carbon tax (The Australian).

New Zealand budget to sprinkle funds to international growth agenda

New government spending in the May 16 budget will be skewed towards supporting fast-growth export businesses, Prime Minister John Key has said (The National Business Review).